At annual town meeting Monday night, Chilmark residents gave the initial approval for a $368,000 override and passed a bylaw extending oversight of wetland buffer zones, while tabling a bylaw on short-term rentals.
Town moderator Janet Weidner presided over the 226 residents voting on 34 articles, where all but two passed unanimously over the course of the three and a half hour meeting.
Voters began the night by passing the override to Proposition 2 1/2 and the budget unanimously.
This year’s budget, at $16.3 million, is 6.1 per cent larger than last year’s, an increase that select board members previously called a “success” compared to other towns. All Island towns this year have asked voters to raise the tax levy higher than 2 1/2 per cent to meet rising operational and education costs.
The Chilmark override accounts mostly for rising assessments from the Up-Island Regional School District and regional high school. It also includes funding for a full-time EMT and additional hours at the library, allowing the building to open for a full day on Fridays instead of the current half day.
Voters will need to give further approval of the override, which is split across four questions, at the town election Wednesday. Polls will be open from noon to 8 p.m. at the Chilmark Community Center.
Residents voted to indefinitely table a proposed bylaw that would codify short-term rentals as a permissible accessory use of residential properties. Planning board chair Richard Osnoss made the motion, citing questions from town counsel over the wording of the bylaw that may have “unintended consequences” on homeowners who rent their homes on a short-term basis.
There are currently more than 400 short-term rentals in Chilmark.
At the Oak Bluffs annual town meeting in early April, voters tabled an article proposing new regulations for short-term rentals after planning board members said the board wanted to revise it further.
The Chilmark planning board intends to address the bylaw again in the coming year with input from the attorney general’s office and case law to determine proper wording of the bylaw.
“We hope to be back with a bylaw that benefits the townspeople,” Mr. Osnoss said.
Voters approved funds to purchase and install a food waste recycler at Chilmark’s Local Drop Off, making it the third town to pass such an article this year. Aquinnah residents will vote on a similar article in May.
Sophie Mazza, Island Grown Initiative's food waste director who spearheads the local efforts to process food waste instead of shipping it off Island, addressed concerns from government officials who worried that there was not enough information on the costs to operate the recycler.
She cited the success of municipally-owned food waste recyclers in Connecticut and New York, as well as the recycler at the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School. The cost to operate the recycler is projected to be equal to the dollars saved in disposal costs, and the processed waste is a fertilizer that residents and farms would have access to.
“This is Chilmark’s opportunity to join the other towns in reducing food waste, supporting healthy soils and a healthy climate, lower household trash bills, and cut down the huge amount of food waste exported each year,” Ms. Mazza said Monday night to applause from the audience.
Two students not yet of voting age urged residents to support the article in order to mitigate negative environmental impacts of food waste and fuel costs to ship waste off Island.
“As the upcoming generation of adults, we are excited for the day to come when we will be able to vote on matters like this,” said Violet Simon, an eighth grader at the West Tisbury School. “Today is not that day. We need you. We need you to be our voice in this.”
“You have the power to vote yes tonight,” said Emmy Treitman, a freshman at the regional high school. “We don’t. And we are counting on you to speak for us.”
Select board member Matt Poole proposed an amendment to the article that would have conditioned the town’s purchase of the recycler.
He asked for a subcommittee to sign off on the purchase after evaluating the success of the recycler in West Tisbury.
Mr. Poole, along with multiple residents, cited potential contamination in the input stream and high volume of tourists disposing of waste in the summer, placing stress on the transfer station workers.
Other residents said it’s nothing that can’t be worked out in the process, and that the amendment felt like kicking the issue down the road.
“I think the most important thing we heard tonight…was that all of this food waste is contributing methane to our environment,” said resident Deb Dunn. “Whether or not we get a superior quality of soil from it is secondary….Why would we not vote to have this composter to reduce the amount of food waste that’s going into our environment and being shipped off Island, when we can do something about it now?”
“I don’t know why we’re gonna wait for West Tisbury, to see what they’re gonna do. We’re Chilmark, we’re rad,” said Chilmark resident Caitlyn Cooke to laughter from the audience. “We’re gonna do something amazing for the environment…let’s just do this and get it done.”
The amendment was voted down 156-54, and the article passed.
Voters okayed a change to the town’s wetland protection bylaw. The new bylaw increases buffer zones around rivers and ponds from 100 to 200 feet, giving the town's conservation commission jurisdiction over a larger area in order to condition new development to protect the ponds from harmful impacts.
Multiple residents raised concerns over the increased area of the buffer zone, which conservation commission vice chair Stephen Kass said would amount to an extra 320 acres under the commission’s oversight.
“That doesn’t mean you can’t do something there, it simply means that if you were going to make an alteration that has the potential to have significant impacts down the road on that pond, we have to review it,” said Mr. Kass on Monday.
The commission approves most applications within the current 100 foot buffer zone, said Mr. Kass, and is likely to do it with the increased area. But in the process of review, the commission often asks applicants to consider alternative methods with fewer impacts, other locations and ways to absorb runoff and prevent erosion.
A pair of citizen petitions on the warrant passed unanimously, with voters declaring their support for protecting Chilmark from federal overreach, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Similar articles are on the warrants for Tisbury and Aquinnah.
The first petition asks the town to oppose widespread use of automatic license plate recognition devices until the government imposes “safeguards” for the technology.
Town counsel Michael Goldsmith said that while the article is not legally binding — the town could find other ways to purchase the equipment — a yes vote would be a political statement of Chilmark’s position on the issue.
“It would be a statement in the will of the voters,” said Mr. Goldsmith.
The second article asks the town to support designating Chilmark as a Fourth Amendment Workplace Community, meaning the town would support efforts to educate government and other business employees on the specifics of their Fourth Amendment rights, which defend citizens against unnecessary search and seizure.
The evening began with a moment of silence for Warren Doty, a member of the select board for 24 years, who died in March.
Select board member Jeffrey Maida commended outgoing select board member Marie Larsen for her service to the town, recognizing her work on handicap access at the beaches, public access of the library, and on negotiating an easement to an abutter to the Chilmark Preschool.
“This role has taught me so much, more than I ever expected,” said Ms. Larsen. “It’s given me an even deeper appreciation for this town and the people that make it what it is. I feel very lucky to call this place home.”
In a final contribution to the town as a select board member, Ms. Larsen proposed an amendment to an article dealing with holiday overtime pay that struck out Columbus Day as an interchangeable term with Indigenous Peoples Day. The amendment passed unanimously.
Before the rest of the voting got underway, moderator Weidner presented a report along with the historical commission highlighting the role of town meetings in getting to a signed Declaration of Independence 250 years ago — even after the British parliament passed an act attempting to ban town meetings.
“It’s very clear that we as a town were making decisions, we were a part of things, we knew what was going on up in Boston, we knew what was going on in the other colonies, and we were voting to be a part of that,” said Ms. Weidner.
Residents read minutes from noteworthy Chilmark town meetings circa 1774, 1775 and 1776 — the final one in March 1776 choosing a committee of citizens to join in petitioning “‘the general court for the men, arms and ammunition for the defense of this Island,’” Tim Rich read out loud. “Game on,” he added.
The override questions will need a second approval Wednesday at the annual town election. Also on the ballot are multiple questions gauging residents’ interest in improving cell phone service in town.
Voters will consider if the town should allow, build and lease macro cellular towers. The ballot also asks if the town should consider cell service equal to public safety, allowing the town to more easily build a cell tower on Peaked Hill.
Residents have recently raised the issue of spotty cell service in Chilmark, citing public safety risks in tandem with the decline of landlines.
Polls will be open at the Chilmark Community Center from noon to 8 p.m.
Editor's note: this article has been updated with more details from the annual town meeting.
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